Chapter 1

 

"Where are you going?" Tyler's mother asked as Cool Tyler Electroboom headed out the door.

"To the post office," Tyler replied nonchalantly.

“What? Now? You’ll miss the Election, it’s about to start.”

“Yeah, I don’t really care though. I’ll catch the results later. It’s not really a priority for me right now.”

“You’re kidding, right? The Election is the largest event that’s happened in the history of Toontown!

“Mom, it’s the only large event—”

“Exactly my point! You should come sit down and watch it with us. They’ll broadcast it live, obviously. Or, if you’re going out, watch it in person! Promise me you’ll do one or the other.” Tyler sighed. There was no use arguing with his mother, and he knew that well.

“What I can promise is that I’ll consider it.” Tyler’s mom rolled her eyes. “Close enough, I guess.” Tyler did in fact consider it—for like two seconds. He promptly decided he won’t see it at all. Probably not even later, either.

Today was April 19^th—Election Day. In fact, according to the clock on the wall, it started in the next 2 minutes. Election Day was literally right now. Tyler had no interest in the event whatsoever though, because he felt the two candidates weren’t worthy of being elected.

“Neither of them capture the true Toony spirit,” he’s told anyone that listened.

“Not capture the true Toony spirit? How does free balloon rides not capture that?” people ask him.

“Or free pies to throw at each other?” others ask.

“Or turning a freak, out of nowhere snowstorm into a fun thing?”

“AND using that same snowstorm to introduce us to Polar Bears?” All questions he’s heard plenty of times before.

“People, people,” he usually answers them, cackling, “everyone knows the Toony spirit is spending money, and lots of it too!” They usually groan at him in disdain in response. Tyler’s family was pretty rich, and he loved flaunting that over everyone. His critics (or haters, as Tyler called them) have called him the poor man’s version of Flintheart Glomgold, and much to his dismay, they’re pretty much right. His family was rich, sure, but nowhere near as rich as that guy! Tyler’s goal in life is to one day surpass Flintheart Glomgold, maybe even surpass Scrooge McDuck! That thought always cheered him up, and he chuckled to himself at the thought as he headed out the door of his four- story house on his extra-large Estate.

It was a beautiful Saturday, the sun shining brightly in the sky. There was not a single cloud in the sky. The Toontown Post Office was located near the end of Loopy Lane in Toontown Central, which was the Playground just past Residence Square. Tyler headed in that direction, taking his time, enjoying the weather. The Electrobooms were a pretty famous family in Toontown and one of the original settlers. The town was only a couple of years old and Tyler’s dad bought a lot of land from Mayor Mickey as soon as he arrived, turning it into a huge private Estate that can fit ten wide four-story houses and a large pond for private fishing. Only six mansions were built at the moment, so the rest of the land is giant open space. Of course, he’d hired a whole 48-toon crew and paid them all really good salaries for building everything for him. They even caught some of the local fish and dumped them into the newly constructed pond so that they’d always have something to fish for.

Pretty much everyone knew the Electrobooms at this point, though they weren’t exactly on everyone’s Top Ten Families lists. Cool Tyler Electroboom was mostly why, flaunting his riches to everyone who would listen (and even to everyone who wouldn’t) and being an overall spoiled brat. Tyler was handsome, too, and he knew it, which made him even more cocky. He had brown eyes and a medium-sized nose. He had dimples in his cheeks, especially when he smiled. He was really popular with the girls in town, and boy did he enjoy their attention. He was a medium-sized red cat, and always wore bright, flashy clothes. His clothes screamed look at me, I have money in every way.

The giant plot of land where Tyler lived was located on what is now known as Jellybean Rd in Toontown Central’s Residence Square, just outside of the playground. Jellybean Rd is a privately-owned road, complete with a large black gate separating the rest of the Square from them. Tyler liked the privacy; with such a restriction, no poorman ever got close, which is just as well for him.

He made his way down Residence Square and finally reached the post office on Loopy Lane about twelve minutes later, taking his sweet time to get there. The whole entire time there wasn’t a single toon to be seen anywhere at all, probably because everyone was at the Election. It suddenly occurred to Tyler that maybe the Post Office wouldn’t even be open for the Election and he’d just wasted his time coming over. Oh well, he thought. Not like he had anything better to do at the moment. The Toontown Post Office was a large rectangular-shaped building located right in the middle of Loopy Lane, right around the corner from an up and coming restaurant called Laughter Hours Café. Across the street from the Post Office was a large towering tree that provided some shade, right next to another restaurant called Chortle Café, which had been around for years now. Postmaster Pete, the Toon who runs the Post Office, has often commented on how great the food and service there is, and he loves how conveniently close to the post office it is.

Outside of the Post Office, Tyler saw his “friend” Master Gustavo Funnymooch, Gus for short. Master Gustavo Funnymooch didn’t come from a rich family at all, much to the disdain of Tyler. He was a royal blue cat and always had a goofy smile. His family had been in Toontown since forever, apparently having lived in the rural nothingness it was before it became Toontown. Gus considers him a friend because he was literally the first person he met since the little plot of land he lived on became part of the up and coming Toontown. He happened to live nearby Tyler’s own Estate though it’s nowhere near as extravagant. The only reason Tyler bothered to even talk to this guy at all was because his parents and Gus’s parents became good friends right off the bat. If it were up to Tyler he’d have avoided them entirely, nose literally up in the air.

“Tyler! Hey, Tyler!” Gustavo called to him, and Tyler sighed. Oh great, the poorman beckons, he thought to himself bitterly. “Poorman” (one word) is what Tyler called anyone who didn’t come anywhere near his riches. So, pretty much most of the town. Tyler reluctantly walked toward Gustavo who seemed to be trying to find the way in or something; he was looking about, walking left and right in front of the door. The door wasn't hard to miss-- it was big and had a picture of a delivery truck in front. Tyler rolled his eyes at the idiot.

"Hi Gustavo," Tyler said with a flat tone. Gustavo didn’t seem to notice it at all.

"Heya, Ty!! How are you?!" Gustavo exclaimed. Gus called Tyler Ty for short and Tyler hated it.

"Don’t call me that,” he grumbled under his breath.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I said, I am doing pretty great. How about you?”

“Oh. I’m doing Toontastic!”

“Gee. That’s...neat.” Tyler said unenthusiastically. Was this guy leaving soon? He surely hoped so.

“What brings you here, Ty?”

“There’s a package waiting for me to pick up.”

"Really? I just came here because I have nothing else to do," Gustavo said. Tyler rolled his eyes. Of course. Lame-o. “Well, that’s not totally true; I was pacing a bit, trying to remember what my mom wanted me to get from…somewhere.” Ah. Pacing. Not trying to find the way in. At least he’s not a total idiot, Tyler thought with a smirk.

“I’m sure it was somewhere far away from here. Best move along,” Tyler said, waving his hand dismissively and waited for Gustavo to leave. He didn’t move, however, and just gave Tyler his trademark goofy smile.

"Naw, let's just go in together. I’m sure it’ll come to me," Gustavo said.

“Oh no, it’s fine, you go on ahead without me,” Tyler said.

“Naw, that’s no fun. You go in first.” Tyler sighed and brushed past him, opening the door briskly. He didn’t hold it for him and simply walked right in without waiting. He heard the door close behind him and he hoped Gustavo hadn’t followed him in. No such luck; he was right behind Tyler, goofy smile on his goofy face. Ugh. The inside of the post office was surprisingly huge. There were lots of mail drop off slots in the far corner. In front of the door were the front desks, where Toons could go and ask questions, drop off a package, etc. Tyler walked over to one the windows in front of the desks.

“You guys are open? I thought for sure you’d be closed for the Election,” Tyler mused at a tall red dog behind the window, who was wearing a yellow shirt with green shorts. He had a name tag on his yellow shirt with the name BERT written on it in big black letters.

"Yes, barely. Postmaster Pete took the day off today for the Election. He was offering double pay so I volunteered to come in today, because packages are always coming in and out and someone has to accept and sort them, ya know? It’s not Election Day everywhere, ya know?” He noticed Tyler’s bored expression and immediately switched topics. “Anyway, how may I help you?”

"I was told that a package for Cool Tyler Electroboom has arrived."

"Electroboom, eh? Let me check," Bert said. He disappeared into a room behind him.

“What’s in the package?” Gustavo asked when he left

“That’s for me to know and for you to, well, not to know.”

“Oh. Is it something fun at least?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. Neat.” Tyler tapped his fingers on the counter impatiently. Minutes of awkward silence went by.

Bert returned about five minutes later, carrying a large brown rectangular package.

"Yes, here you go," Bert handed Tyler the package.

“Finally,” Tyler muttered and started to walk away with it immediately.

“Um, excuse me, sir, but there is a small fee for picking up and dropping off packages,” Bert called after him. Tyler froze in his tracks and looked back at him angrily.

“Seriously? That’s a joke, right?”

"No, sir. The fee is 100 jellybeans," Bert replied. Jellybeans were the way Toons paid for stuff around Toontown, which Tyler found pretty ridiculous because most developed Toon nations in the world accepted regular dollar bills just fine. Some places used “coins” which Tyler also thought was ridiculous but at least, in Tyler’s opinion, it was better than Toontown’s currency; “I mean,” he’s said before, “who the heck uses something you can eat as a payment method? That’s just dumb.”

“Fine.” Grumbling, Tyler set the package down on the counter and took out his jellybean jar. He meticulously counted 100 beans, making sure there wasn’t an extra one.

"Here," he said curtly, dumping the beans onto the counter. Bert’s face turned into shock at his brisk attitude.

"Thank you, sir, come again?" Bert said slowly, uncertain. Tyler left the post office without another word, Gustavo right at his heels.

"Seriously, what's that package for?" Gustavo asked, a grin on his face.

"Seriously, it’s none of your business,” Tyler growled. Can this guy leave already? Geez. Gustavo’s face fell.

“Oh. Well, okay, I get it, I was just—” he started to say but got interrupted by a scream behind them. Tyler and Gustavo turned around and saw a chubby girl green dog Toon wearing a Tie Dyed shirt and a yellow and blue skirt, pointing up to the sky in horror. What the? What is she doing here? Isn’t everyone supposed to be at the Election? Confused, Tyler looked to where she was pointing and gasped.  The sky had grown completely dark as a giant cloud covered the sun. It took Tyler a couple of seconds to realize it was no normal cloud, but a huge bunch of large metal creatures with propellers on their heads flying quickly toward them. Frozen in shock, Tyler didn’t move. His legs refused to. Sweat poured down his face as he stared, bug-eyed and mouth open. The large metal creatures got closer, hovering right over Loopy Lane. A whooshing sound came from the propellers as they landed all over the street, a handful of them immediately surrounding Gustavo, Tyler, and the chubby green dog.

“Wh-who are you?! What are you?! What do you want?!” the chubby green dog cried. A tall creature with a brown suit and some kind of cheese for a head stepped forward.

"Citizens! This town belongs to us Cogs now! Resistance is futile and subject to immediate sadness!” the creature said in a metallic voice.